So far, our house renovations have been architecturally simple. All the previous owners were protectionists and there was nothing done that couldn’t be undone relatively simply (and inexpensively) …until now.
Well, renovations have finally started again. Sort of. About a month ago, I began (as I always do) removing the paint from the lower wall of the upstairs bathroom. Like the kitchen and downstairs bathroom/pantry, the scored lines in the plaster were getting lost under 85 years of paint and it needed to be removed. It went faster than I thought and 2 weeks later, it was done. We painted the upper walls a color (Benjamin Moore’s Winthrop Peach) close to one we had discovered during the bathroom archeology phase. The trim was stripped of paint and was coated with a semi-gloss - BM Sheraton Beige. The lower wall color will be painted a high gloss BM Antique White. So, things were progressing at a pretty fast clip. And now..you know, not so much.
We have encountered a pretty big problem while preparing to remove the 1990s tub & shower enclosure so we could install a clawfoot tub. The problem? No floor. Well, not NO floor, but hacked up flooring with the tub sitting on the sub-floor.
Tub nestled between splintered heart pine & sitting on the sub-floor
When it doubt, rip it out…No reclaimed floorboards available after this job
Oh, and hacked up plaster walls too. Down to the lathe on a portion of the wall. Probably the bottom 1/4 of the plaster on the wall has been taken off. The middle half seems to be intact, the upper 1/4, we don’t know yet. It’s possible the upper portion of the wall is notched to accommodate the lip of the shower enclosure. We’ll know in the next couple of days. As you may recall, the plaster was created with beveled score lines to resemble rectangular subway tile. Recreating that with drywall, I would think, would be impossible and we ain’t plasters here at the 1919 American Four Square. OH……Crap!
I don’t even know what to say about this…(sigh)
They did whatever was required to slam this tub & shower in. Not a historically sensitive renovation.
The major expense in this reno was to be the clawfoot tub. We were not prepared to spend mega-bucks on new flooring (or the cost of having T&G heart pine replacement boards custom milled) nor were we expecting to have to replace wall surface.
See the whole mess (as we know it today, at least), at http://am4sq.com Click on House Stuff at the left. The schematic of the configuration of the bathroom is on the left side, because of course, there are two doors, a window, a partial wall, a sink and toilet to consider too. Then click on that room to see photos of what we’re struggling with.
Horaayy..there are 2 comment(s) for me so far ;)
[...] gize profusely to the contractors who installed the tub after ripping them in my last post . It appears to us that the floor may never have been in place under the original tub. It appears that the sub-flo [...]
[...] It was the missing wall and floor, then the two 85 year old trees crashing, the intoxicating vapors of denatured alcohol in the floor refinishing project, the projects that seem to take forever, that whole 1918 electrical vs 2006 power needs thing, and then the roof. So, I’ve decided that for the rest of the weekend, I will only post happy, cheerful news. Given the way things have been going, I may not talk to ya ’til Monday. Powered By Qumana [...]